Ru settled beside him, snuggling up closer and closer until he was almost on top of him. Jasim laughed and put his arm around him.
“There were red kites in County Wicklow.Milvus milvus.”
“Do you know all the genus names?”
“Those that were in the book. I had to be careful because of Bela. She knows kites are a threat, but that doesn’t keep her safe. Crows band together to fight off kites but Bela wasn’t with other crows.”
“Red kites are beautiful birds. So graceful. Most birds of prey are.”
“Hawks, eagles andkitesall belong to the Accipitridae family.”
“My father had falcons.”
“The Falconidae family. Does he still have them?”
“Probably. He once paid for seats on a plane to transport sixty of them.”
“Wow.”
“My family is the reason I can’t be seen to be in a relationship with a man.” Jasim turned to face him. “In Saudi Arabia, it’s a crime punishable by death or up to life imprisonment. Until a year ago, you could add lashing to that list. A thousand strokes wasn’t uncommon. Not at one go. As soon as you’d healed, you’d be lashed again. Barbaric, and finally it’s been stopped. Well, that’s the official line.”
“What do you mean?”
“What happens inside someone’s home is seen as family business.”
“Oh.”
“As far as many Muslim countries are concerned, there’s no such thing as a gay person, just a perverted one. Homosexuality is regarded as a western phenomenon. While authorities do take action against gay men, it’s the attitude of their families that causes the most issues. In Saudi society, as in many others, there’s a lot of pressure to marry and have children, to continue the family line. My father arranged marriages for my brothers and my sisters, and would have done the same for me. I escaped because of polo.”
“So horses saved you too?”
Jasim stroked Ru’s cheek and smiled. “They did. I had a natural talent, but I practised and practised to make myself the best I could possibly be because I could see that being a world-class polo player offered a way out. Like my brothers, I’d been to school in England, then university here. It was when I went home, aged 21 and found prospective brides being lined up, that I knew I had to do something and fast.”
“Did your family guess you were gay?”
“They…suspected. They had people…speak to me, threaten me, beat me. Themutawwa’in—a sort of vice police, are always on the lookout for men they see as different. Checking if you walk in a certain way, wear clothing they consider… unsuitable, or catch you leaning in to talk to another man in the wrong place with the wrong look on your face—a look they can interpret any way they wish… Well, it would be disastrous.” He sighed. “They use any excuse to arrest you. They have less power these days, but you just can’t trust anyone. Not even your brothers.”
Uh oh.“Were you arrested?”
“No, but I was tricked into thinking I had been. Snatched off the street. A hood put over my head. I didn’t realise that I’d been taken back to my father’s home. I was imprisoned in a small room for a long time and kept blindfolded and tied up. I cursed myself for ever returning home after university. I was given psychiatric treatment, a sort of reconditioning—conversion therapy by any other name. They used religion to threaten me. But I knew what to say and do in order to gain my freedom. Not too much too soon, but a gradual awakening as if I’d come to my senses. I managed to avoid marriage and eventually, I was allowed out, first of all to play in polo matches in Saudi, and finally abroad. I always came back, not that I had much choice. Those who accompanied me made sure of that. I had to wait for the right moment. When I was offered a place in the best polo team in Spain, and I announced my engagement to a Spanish woman, they let me go.”
Ru bit his lip.
“I paid her. We were friends. Elinora had cancer. I married her when we knew she was dying. She insisted. Said it would help me and it did. Marriage gave me a few years of peace. She died in my arms.”
Ru slid his hand into Jasim’s and squeezed his fingers. “I’m sorry.”
“It was a long time ago.”
“What’s the position with your family now?”
“After a period of mourning, they expected me to find a wife. They’re…not happy that I haven’t.”
“I don’t understand why you can’t live the life you want.”
“Polo might have saved me, but it’s also trapped me. I’m well known on the polo circuit. Any follower of polo will have heard of me. I’m one of the top four players in the UK. My family and I might be estranged, but I am still PrinceJasim bin Rajhi, youngest son of one of the most prominent Saudi families. I can still bring shame on them. Idobring shame on them by not being married with children, by being estranged because I choose not to go home.”
“Oh.”
